GAME: Tavern Quest

I chose to pick this one up on my tablet and I'm glad I did. I'm sure it's just as brilliant on smaller devices, but when it comes to battle I find the extra swiping space helps. Battle you say in a game that looks like it's cooking based by the icon, what do you mean!? It is a game called Tavern Quest by Glu in which you both run a tavern AND embark on mighty quest battles!

Lemme give you a bit of background. Our hero you see, is the dragon from the icon. Unlike the other dragons, he isn't about terrorising the citizens of the world, he's more preoccupied with cooking. Being keen and wise, he quickly realises that by opening a tavern and befriending the heroes of the realm he can get the chance to exact revenge on those who bullied him in the monster world by sending the heroes he is feeding out after them!

Build your tavern and cook your food, much like Chefville and other cooking games. Place your cooking areas and select your dish to cook based off it's time or if you require them. This is where it is not like the other cooking games. Each dish has a flavour (sometimes multiple flavours) and these flavours are what your heroes are after.

Heroes will wander in seeking sustenance of a particular calibre. If you have that flavour and the amount requested, the hero will stay and dine. They take varying lengths of time to eat, so make sure you have plenty of seating or Glu Coins to hurry them up. Once they are done you can offer them a room in your tavern to stay in (this increases with your tavern level). Once they accept the offer you can now use them for quests!

Quests sometimes require specific heroes in order to complete them. Build your standards and unlock new heroes. Each flag attracts a set and as you level up, try and keep one of each type of hero you encounter as you may need them down the road. Just make sure you don't get them killed. When you choose a quest to complete the difficulty level is denoted by a skull. The easiest quests are 1 skull hard and they only go up from there. You will have the chance to select who to take into the quest (some classes locked) so you can level up your lower level guys at times or sub in your tougher guys if required. Take your heroes in and start your campaign against the monster. 

Choose the order you send them in with. You have a tank, a ranged and a healer. Each class gets one special attack which you can pay extra Glu coins to use more then once. Advance on the enemy, push them back then watch out for their special attacks. I wasn't fully prepared for all the special attacks, but you catch on quick. Some enemies throw things (tap the projectile to destroy them), some enemies attack from above (swipe the line numerous times to cut it) and other enemies hurl things (tap the object repetitively to destroy it). There are of course in game prompts to remind you or show you what to do. Stop these special attacks before they reach your heroes or they do loads of damage.

Defeat the monster and your heroes earn experience. Experience of course results in levels! Levels power up your heroes and this is why it's important to collect one of each and not get them killed. Pretty straight forward I know. Collecting one of each also earns you Glu points and other rewards.

There are of course items in the game that can only be purchased with Glu points and will prevent you from completing quests and the such but it doesn't look finite. This isn't a wall, it's a grade (those things us farmers love to vanquish just cuz we can!).

Ways to earn Glu points:

Finish the cooking tier for an item

Complete quests (there are a few that offer Glu points here and there)

Complete the objectives and tasks

Watch videos or download other games and apps (on Android at least, we all know Apple isn't down with that normally)

Join the Glu VIP program (of course!)

So it is not impossible to get your Paladin standard and start attracting them etc.; it's just going to take longer then most people can tolerate.

So build your tavern, do your quests, cook your food, level up your heroes and exact your revenge as a bullied dragon who wishes nothing more then to express himself through his culinary endeavours. How can you not love it? The art style is quirky and personable. The character name generator is amusing and fitting. The recipes themselves are equally as amusing and you have to appreciate that some recipes look sad while cooking, indifferent when sat on the counter waiting to be served and happy once on a customers table.

It's the little things that matter really!

It is also one of the few games I play with the audio on. Very fitting and complimentary.

I very much approve of this game as it has prevented me from playing the multitude of other games I've been meaning to check out as I look into applying to different companies for employment... :s

Now...

Exploit!

There is only one exploit I have discovered in the game so far (but I've only had my hands on it a few days so far). The game doesn't take well to an 'L' shape in your tavern and you can use this during trying times to build your available dishes for a hero without letting your regular customers wear down the numbers on you.

The game is set to automatically consume and pay you for dishes when you're out of the game or off elsewhere questing etc. HOWEVER! If you are in the tavern and you build it so that there is a length of it that you can place your counters and cooking utensils in BUT keep the dining area off screen, the game doesn't automatically consume the dishes you have out unless you scroll the screen back out over your current customers.

Unless a new hero walks in (at which point the camera will pan across the tavern to the door) and you hear automatic gun fire which the sound of the game populating the tables with dishes when it realises you're looking!

Doing this can help you horde one minute recipes for a much needed hero or help you preserve dishes when you know you have another ten minutes before you can place anything new on the counter (avoiding pissing off your customers and lowering your popularity).

I am not obligated to update this class three should they choose to fix it. :)

Get It!
iOS: http://www.apple.com/itunes/download/?id=495058349
Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.glu.tavkeeper&hl=en

Game: Hellfire

So the first game I'm going to speak on is a catchy card game called Hellfire. I spotted this freemium title on App Annie in the top 5 grossing for Slovakia of all places. Standing out in the sea of Clash of Clans and Candy Crush Saga icons, I felt compelled to check it out. Needless to say, it has far outplayed the addiction level of Square Enix recent card game Guardian Cross.

Not following a story line so to speak, it gives rise to an endless loop of things to do. The events occur every couple of days for a few days and are actually the first time I ever applied the word "frenzy" to any freemium title. This game is the opposite of PvP in an amazing way! I will explain as I run through it.

Working off a Paper Toss mechanic where you throw orbs of power at your enemies by swiping your screen, it is simple yet still requires skill. Just want you want from a game. Anyone can do it effectively but certain people will do it perfectly. It's a refreshing change from the average tap mechanic you get from most games.

It's much easier to play on a tablet as you have far more precision, but the graphics begin to suffer slightly at that resolution. Cards looks fine in their smaller frames, but if you view it full screen they begin to pixelate.

WoW Factor:

• Beautiful artwork 
• No expense spared and style consistent
• Real time beneficial player interactions 
• Is found you, lemme giveayou stuff!
• Raid FRENZY during events 
• They have made the word raid work in a card game... kudos

Frown Factor:

• Not enough space for cards (they did recently increase it to 100)
• There are so many beautiful and brilliant cards, you want to keep not only functional cards but vanity cards. You'll understand why this can be a problem a little later on.
• Down time between events can sometimes drag
• The one or two days gap between events can seem like a massive length of time when the game moves at a whirlwind pace when the events are on.
• SNAPFU: I just lost three hours of my night, wtf...
• You can get carried away to far distant lands for hours on end with this game. You can do the usual 5 minutes here and there, don't get me wrong, but when you have so much loot to collect in the game and sort out, it can become a bit of a time commitment with the hundred card limit.

Singleplayer (kinda)

Quick Overview

Mobage Inc. is responsible for giving us this lovely app for both iOS and Android. The mechanics involved are brilliantly simple and effective. Create a deck of 9 cards (3 groups of 3) and go on quests. Use the different elements against each other to incur maximum damage and obliterate the NPC cards challenging you and complete areas. There are 3 rounds of battle with anywhere from 2 to 5 enemies to defeat in each one. Each enemy has an action count and at the end of it you will be attacked by them so choose your targets carefully.

Allies

In singleplayer you get the chance to earn Ally crystals. These can be used to summon new lower value cards for levelling up your more powerful ones. These you get from selecting a different Ally to take into battle with you before engaging in a Singleplayer Chapter. Successfully defeat the Chapter and receive the previous stated amount of crystals as well as sharing some with the player you just allied with. 

Allies are found at the end of each chapter in singleplayer. It is commonly someone who is also in that area of the game and active at the time. Allies can make or break a battle, if you want to be made one, you have to logged into the game and active in order for other players to discover you.

Singleplayer Loop

• Mind your lead cards elements as you want to avoid taking a boss or similar of the opposing element (which will do you max damage) and select a Chapter.
• Pick an Ally to take into battle with you. Always good to take one using the opposing element of the area you're going into.
• Mind the action timers on your enemies and look to remove the opposing elements as quickly as possible
• Survive the three rounds and advance to the victory screen
• Receive experience (even if failed)
  (only on a win)
• Chance to get common cards for merging 
• Receive Ally Crystals for successfully taking an Ally through battle with you 
• Chance to discover a new Ally (who will appear during battle and attack without prompt)
• Chance to discover a Boss Gate (only when an event is active)

Multiplayer

Multiplayer Loop

• Check you have at least 1 Battle Energy or 1 Small Battle Potion by which to gain a Battle Energy to challenge a boss with
• Check if any Allies have requested your help and what level the enemies are if they have and whether they have made an effort to damage them down a bit
• If no raid bosses are available start questing in the hopes of discovering a Boss Gate
• Find a Boss and take them on
• Get 1x damage for 1 BE
• Get 3x damage for 2 BE
• Get 5x damage for 3 BE
• You can choose how many to use if you have the max 3 slots lit up, unused BE will be carried over
• Enter the battle and watch for the seals to appear
• They will be the different elements. Memorise them. There will be between 3 and 6 of them normally.
• Attack each seal with the opposing element to score maximum damage
• Hit the seal square on for a critical hit which will double your damage.
• Keep flicking your orbs of exponential damage at your enemy until the 40 second timer has expired or they are dead 
• If you have failed to destroy them you may be given the chance to call in your allies to finish them off in order to make gains
• Advance to the reward screen where you are given many lovely things!
• Score medals for doing the most damage out of all players
• Score medals for the enemy having been defeated
• Score medals for working with different quantities of other players
• Score Battle Potions for discovering the boss
• Score Battle Potions for dealing the final blow of a battle 

Cards

Now here's where your time can get a bit lost. Once you've collected all your medals, you can use them to perform card summons of various grades depending on the enemy you defeated and the medals you received. 

Bronze Medal: Summons 1 star cards and very occasionally 2 star cards

Silver Medal: Summons 2 star cards and very occasionally 3 star cards

Gold Medal: Summons 3 star cards and very occasionally 4 star cards

These aren't the only cards you can summon. There's an entire wall of summons deals to sift through and most of them require Firecoins. 

Cost of a Firecoin = 0.006 and for less then 1.00 you can summon a card rare or above

Battle Potions are also available for purchase

This doesn't mean that only the paying players are advancing. By raiding like a mofo you can easily build up an arsenal of cards that are super rare. Each card starts with a rating, but through evolution steps up a grade. The trick is being patient enough to collect the full fury through the medal system.

Evolution

Each card can be merged with its core card four times to create a more powerful and rare card (I added the crappy stars, I'm not trying to insult the incredibly gifted and professional artists at Mobage Inc. :) )

This is where the time consuming aspect comes in. You are free to feed any card into your existing cards to level them up, but the cards are worth so much more if you can get them to their final evolution before you do so. You also get bonus experience for merging like cards. Each cards base stat will increase with each merging of the same card. Score enough 3 star cards from your silver medal summons (the most common mid raid level) and you have 4 star cards. Get enough gold medals and earn 4 star cards that have the potential to become 5 star cards (the miximum). It's very gratifying.

Each card has a different image for every evolution and they are all worth appreciating. This is where my frown rating comes in as the vanity value of some cards is brilliant. They are gorgeous or quirky, maybe menacing or eclectic and you just want to keep them for pure appreciation and self enjoyment. I love the 3rd Evo on the Shadow Fae Archer as an example, but she's a low rarity card and not worth keeping otherwise.

Suggestions:

• The game could do with a catalogue of cards discovered and evolved for showing your friends as you don't always remember to screen grab.
• Once a card is fully evolved, players should have the ability to pay for the chance to display the fully evolved card at any level of its evolution if they choose.

Event Leaderboards

When the events are on, all players are gathering points to earn a spot on the leaderboard. Leaderboard ranks are rewarded with rare gifts at the end of the event including the cards involved in that event that you will never have the chance of getting again.

The game pays out to the hundred of thousands, so your chances of scoring some loot is a good one!

Hints and Tips!

• Water douses Fire - Fire burns Death - Death poisons Earth - Earth absorbs Water
• Mix up your deck a little bit and don't pair up opposing elements
• Leave the game running for the sake of it occasionally to attract allies
• Don't waste your Battle Potions! Check out how much time is left on a Raid Boss and if people are working on them before investing
• Don't worry about caching in your medals when a legendary boss has been released, there's no maximum on how many medals you can have. You can summon cards a hundred at a time once the run is over or you exhaust your Battle Potions
• You won't be short on allies if you play often enough so clear out the ones that have churned so you don't waste your time on players that won't appreciate the Ally Jewels
• Earn those Silver Medals!

Get it:

Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mobage.ww.a953.Fuzion_Android

iTunes: https://itunes.apple.com/app/hellfire/id557044972?mt=8